Matti Maasikas,President-in-Office of the Council. – Madam President, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak today on combating anti-Semitism. It is a topic of common concern to us all.

Let me start by expressing my deep concern about the current situation in Europe. Evidence from different sources, including the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights and the Council of Europe, shows an alarming increase in intolerance and hatred. There exists specific data collected by the Fundamental Rights Agency confirming that every fourth Jew in Europe has experienced verbal or physical violence. It is difficult to believe and understand that so many in our society reject the fundamental values of tolerance, respect and liberty, and instead choose to hate.

What can be done to address anti-Semitism? This issue was discussed in more general terms during the conference on positive narratives against hate speech, which the Maltese Presidency organised in April this year. Experts from Member States, international organisations, academia and civil society agreed that there was no single perfect remedy for hatred. As is often the case, we need a complex response that starts with education, data collection and analysis, and ends with condemnation and criminal sanctions.

Let me start with the measures I mentioned last, condemnation and criminal sanctions. The EU has adopted specific legislation on combating intolerance and hatred, namely the 2008 Framework Decision on combating racism and xenophobia. This decision outlaws Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic hate speech inciting violence. In particular, it prohibits under criminal law condoning, denying or grossly trivialising the Holocaust.

In June 2016, the Council stressed the importance of this legal instrument and invited Member States to ensure its effective transposition and implementation, in addition to other relevant hate crime laws at national level. Furthermore, the Council asked Member States to develop effective methods to report and ensure proper recording of hate crimes.

In the context of hate speech, the Council supports the Commission High Level Group, which seeks to develop, together with the Member States, concrete practices and tools to improve responses to racism, xenophobia and other forms of intolerance. This group is actually meeting today and tomorrow, and one of the items on the agenda concerns specifically the Week of Action on Combating anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred. There will also be an opportunity to discuss the rights of victims of hate crimes. On several occasions, the Council has called on Member States to ensure the full and correct implementation of the EU legislation, notably the EU Directive on the rights of victims of crime.

I hope that the expertise from the High Level Group experts will bring us closer in our common endeavour. However, let me stress that all these countermeasures will be in vain if we forget the important role of education and youth work. More precisely, it is crucial to know the history of our continent to understand the value of tolerance and to be able to counter anti-Semitism when confronted with it. In the context of awareness-raising and policy advice, we are grateful to the European Fundamental Rights Agency for its continued monitoring of, and research into, discrimination and anti-Semitism and for offering evidence-based solutions and suggestions.

I would like to conclude by stressing once again how important it is to combat anti-Semitism. I would like to recognise the work of the first European Commission Coordinator on combating anti-Semitism, Katharina von Schnurbein. We have different tools: we have knowledge, we have education, we have counter-narratives, but we also have condemnation of any form of anti-Semitic violence, hate speech or discrimination. Accordingly, the responsibility rests with all of us – politicians, teachers, students, parents and, if need be, also judges and prosecutors. No one can close his or her eyes or ears and pretend not to see injustice, discrimination or hatred.

An important part of the exhibition in the recently opened House of European History, which was founded at the European Parliament’s initiative, is devoted to the genocide of European Jews. It is the duty of our continent, and our shared responsibility, to remember and not to let it happen again.

Věra Jourová,Member of the Commission. – Madam President, combating anti-Semitism is indeed a very important and alarming topic, considering the statistical evidence which the Minister has just mentioned. I very much welcome Parliament’s debate and the motion for a resolution. Increasing fear and high rates of verbal and physical violence against ethnic, religious and other minorities across Europe are a major concern, and it is our duty not only to discuss this but also to come forward with solutions.

Data show a clear spike in anti—Semitic incidents. There was more than one incident a day in Austria and three incidents per day in the United Kingdom in 2016, in both cases the highest numbers ever recorded. We are particularly worried about discrimination and harassment against Jewish youngsters, who are more likely to experience anti-Semitism in schools and universities. A hostile environment in schools will put the next generation at risk of exclusion. All of us, collectively and individually, have the duty to fight against intolerance and hatred and reject all expressions of them.

We welcomed yesterday’s Joint Day of Action, with Parliament, on combating anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred, which brought together Jewish and Muslim youngsters. Today we are opening two funding calls for applications, making available EUR 5.5 million to support civil society and Member States’ authorities in better preventing and countering racism and xenophobia, including anti—Semitism and other forms of intolerance, hate crime and hate speech. Particular areas of attention include hate-crime training, empowering and supporting hate-crime victims, and improving recording, as well as data collection and methodologies.

Also, at today’s meeting of the High—Level Group on combating racism, xenophobia and other intolerance I presented the results of the implementation of the Code of Conduct we concluded in May 2016 with major IT companies to combat illegal hate speech online. I can inform you today that significant progress has been made and all IT companies have been improving their reaction to notifications concerning manifestly illegal hate speech, including anti-Semitic hate speech.

Let me also inform you that I have asked the EU Fundamental Rights Agency to conduct a large-scale survey on the experience of Jews with anti-Semitism. We expect the results by early next year. It will be the first time that we have comparable data on trends around anti—Semitism across the EU, following an initial survey in 2013. On the occasion of this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day we made the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism available through our website. The Commission welcomes any useful tool that helps to prevent anti-Semitism. Several Member States, including the UK and Austria, which I have already mentioned, use this definition in their policymaking and training and in data collection on anti-Semitic incidents and hate crimes.

As you know, following our first Annual Colloquium on Fundamental Rights, the Commission appointed a Coordinator on Combating anti—Semitism, tasked with liaising with Jewish communities and with advancing and mainstreaming Commission action against anti—Semitism. She is here today.

We must learn from the past, in order to ensure that nobody is persecuted for what he or she is, stands for or believes in.

Branislav Škripek, on behalf of the ECR Group. – Madam President, as we speak today, we are facing an unprecedented increase in anti-Semitism in Europe. For years, hate speech and hate crimes against Jews were the domain of marginal groups and political movements. Unfortunately, anti-Semitism is becoming a strong political stream in Europe. It is accepted and followed by many, often in ignorance of its real impact on people in our communities.

Populist, anti-establishment movements use any kind of motivation to gain attention. This includes so-called ‘discussion’ of the Holocaust, and verbal and physical violence against Jews in European cities and the presence of Jews in the Middle East.

This dangerous political rhetoric, however, leads us back to dubious discussion and debate about the legitimacy of the State of Israel. Democracy cannot be an excuse for allowing undemocratic forces to act. Jews in Europe have the right to live freely without fear. The State of Israel has the right to exist and protect itself. Any kind of questioning of this legitimacy cannot be part of a debate in this House or anywhere else.

I call on my colleagues, in the first place, to unite and give a strong political message to the world: any kind of anti-Semitism, subtle or explicit, has to be rejected. I also call on Member States clearly to target grey areas in their educational systems. New generations of European citizens must be raised with awareness of this issue and be able to refuse from the very beginning the malign seed of anti-Semitism.

Cecilia Wikström, on behalf of the ALDE Group. – Madam President, I will start with a quote by Simone Veil: ‘Human beings are so made that the ones who do the crushing feel nothing; it is the person crushed who feels what is happening. Unless one has placed oneself on the side of the oppressed, to feel with them, one cannot understand.’

I just need to say ‘Paris 2015’: four persons dead in a terrorist attack against a Jewish kosher grocery store. In this city, Brussels, four people were killed in a terrorist attack against Belgium’s Jewish Museum. This resolution we are discussing today shows that we, the elected Members of European countries and citizens in this institution, do not tolerate anti-Semitism in our continent. The memories of the Holocaust should never be forgotten. We should do anything we can to combat anti-Semitism in all its ugly forms.

To do this is to accept the resolution. I am proud of it and I would like to reach out to my colleagues Mr Becker and Mr López Aguilar for having done such a great job on this. It is very important that we use the new tool, that we spread it, and that we encourage governments to use the tool and the new definition, because I am convinced that this resolution can actually send a very clear message to governments to do everything they can to prevent and combat anti—Semitic actions and to bring to court anybody, any perpetrator, performing them.

I encourage you to take this resolution to your hearts, digest it and vote in favour tomorrow.

Gerard Batten, on behalf of the EFDD Group. – Madam President, anti-Semitism is on the rise in Europe and this resolution does not attempt to understand the reasons behind it. Studies show that European Muslims are 10 times more likely to hold very unfavourable views about Jews than non-Muslims. There are two main reasons for the growth of the current strains of European anti-Semitism. The first is the anti-Semitic content of the Islamic tracts, the Qur’an, the Hadith and the Sunnah. The second is the dramatic growth in the number of Muslims in Europe over the last 50 years, a growth that is now spiralling upward.

The problem is that many Muslims take literally what is written in their works of fiction. These works are full of exhortations for discrimination, hatred and violence, and not just against Jews, but Christians too. These hateful passages are being propagated by imams in mosques paid for by Saudi Arabia and other Islamic countries. These are not extremist forms of Islam: these are literalist forms of Islam. The passage that always sticks in my mind is the one from the Hadith which says: ‘Judgement day will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews. The Muslims will kill the Jews and the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees. The rocks and trees will cry out Oh Muslim, oh faithful servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him.’

If European governments were serious about combating this problem, they would do two things immediately. First, stop all overseas funding of mosques and imams. Second, end the mass immigration of Muslims into European countries. Any future migration from Islamic countries should be on a highly selective basis only, and only those migrants prepared to make a solemn and binding pledge that they reject the passages of hatred and violence should be admitted.

Steven Woolfe (NI). – Madam President, as someone who has Jewish heritage in my family I am fully aware of the detrimental effect that racism can have on people. As someone of black heritage, too, I have felt that in the past.

I have spoken many times, in this Chamber and beyond, about the ways that Israel, a beacon of freedom across the globe, has been attacked from all quarters. But I am afraid that the definitions in this motion have caused me grave concern: my concern is that they will enhance those who wish to do the Jews and Israel harm. In particular, I am concerned about the adoption of the definition from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The definition is extremely broad and wide. Let me, for example, cite this quote to you: ‘Palestine belongs to the Arabs. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs.’ The author of this quote would have to be imprisoned if we adopt this definition. The author of the quote was Mahatma Gandhi.

There have been hundreds of politicians, writers and philosophers who have opposed violence but who would be caught by this definition. So I would say to those behind this motion: your definition may be well-meaning, but what you will be doing is preventing freedom of speech and creating a fear of speaking. That is why I would ask you to reflect. Go back to the drawing board, please.

Jussi Halla-aho (ECR). – Madam President, historically anti-Semitism in Europe has been connected to extreme nationalism. However, this historical background should not make us blind to what is going on today. The new rise in anti-Jewish hatred and violence is linked to immigration from Muslim countries. Research shows that anti-Jewish attitudes are mainstream in Muslim communities. Unfortunately these communities, together with the so-called liberals, have been very successful in portraying Muslims as victims and victims only, thereby placing them beyond justified criticism.

The Left, with their pathological anti-Israel agenda, is not very helpful. It is not enough to condemn anti—Semitism in general terms. The problem must be properly identified and recognised if we want to do something about it.

Lars Adaktusson (PPE). – Madam President, violence with anti-Semitic motives is on the rise. Terrorist attacks like those in Toulouse, Brussels, Paris and Copenhagen are aimed at individuals only because they are Jewish. Threats and harassment are also increasing. The situation in my home country, Sweden, illustrates what we are talking about today. Earlier this spring, the synagogue in the city of Umeå closed down due to systematic threats. In the city of Malmö, Jewish individuals risk being attacked if they wear a necklace with the Star of David around their neck.

In order to confront today’s anti-Semitism in Europe, we have to acknowledge the problem and its roots. Tomorrow this House will vote on a resolution on this matter. The aim is to find a common European definition of anti-Semitism and to use the EU institutions for exchange of information in the fight against this kind of racism. The issue of definition is important because the lack of agreement on how to define anti—Semitism makes it impossible to monitor and prevent anti-Semitic hate crime, which is a precondition for an effective fight against these evil acts.

Finally, I would like to thank my colleague, Mr Becker, for drafting this very important resolution. Let us hope for a broad majority tomorrow and a vote across party lines.

As Jewish organisations, we strongly believe that a commitment to tackling anti-Semitism and all forms of racism is essential. Racism and anti-Semitism are generally covered by specific legislation in each European country and should be dealt with resolutely under these statutes. Endorsing the highly contentious and flawed IHRA document will not aid our collective endeavour to combat anti-Semitism. In our view, endorsement would significantly undermine defences against anti-Semitism by expanding the concept in a politically motivated way. You should think twice about how these organisations look into this. It is important that they address us like this.

Anna Elżbieta Fotyga (ECR). – Madam President, Holocaust denial has been penalised by the majority of EU Member States, yet recently voices have been raised questioning this legislation. Moreover, thousands of Jews, families of Holocaust survivors, have recently decided to leave the EU and move to Israel. They see no future here. I think that early warning is needed about the awful rise of anti-Semitism in Europe.

Sajjad Karim (ECR). – Mr President, I am obliged to you for giving me the floor. It amazes me how we can be the best of parliaments and sometimes the worst of parliaments all in the same session. I have sat through this debate and listened to some of the most corrosive, divisive and cancerous language that I sometimes hear from time to time.

Equality is a cornerstone of the European Union. If we allow discrimination and its cancerous effects to take root, we are nothing. It particularly interests me that those colleagues here today who decided to speak about another one of our great religions in the way that they did actually share one thing in common, and that is a hatred for the European Union. They wish to cloak their arguments in Islamophobic rhetoric in order to attack Europe. That does not take us any further at all. As Europeans, we are equal. You attack one of us, on any basis whatsoever, and you attack as all.

Věra Jourová,Member of the Commission. – Mr President, honourable Members, as I said at the beginning this is a very important debate on a very alarming topic. Some of you mentioned that it must be a matter of solidarity to help and to protect people who are affected by anti-Semitism, but I must say that solidarity is not enough. We need to ensure security for all people, and speaking about security, we are in the field of criminal justice.

Some of you mentioned that we need a legal framework. I can only inform you about something you know yourself, that the Member States are very well equipped with the necessary legislation because we have the framework decision on combating racism and xenophobia and the Member States are obliged to implement it in full – to to my regret, not all the Member States. In some Member States, the situation is not satisfactory because we still have some Member States where denial of the Holocaust, for instance, is not considered criminal wrongdoing under their criminal codes. We have many other problems with definitions and so on, but the Commission is pushing very hard on the Member States to have the legislation in place.

Speaking about criminal justice, I want to respond also to those who mentioned aggressive jihadism. This must be fought by means of criminal justice as well. We now have very strict legislation on combating radicalisation and terrorism. We have very strict rules and laws that enable our Member States to punish not only those who are the perpetrators of violent crime, but also those who are helping, who are supporting with finance, or who are supporting with information, shelter and so on. We are equipped and we have to act.

Speaking about criminal justice, however, I must say that for me, criminal justice is the last resort. We must do much more, because here in Europe we face the situation where we have a high number of people who are able to commit criminal offences against people of another race or another religion. Unfortunately, I have to say this is a happening in Europe due to the passivity of society and the silent acceptance by society.

This is something we have already witnessed several times in our history and we need to do much more than prohibit criminal wrongdoing. We need to act against this passivity and help society to be much more vocal, to say this is not only prohibited – this is totally unacceptable. I am speaking about all sorts of violence against groups of people and minorities. I would warn very strongly against some attempts to impose collective guilt in Europe because we must never do that again.

Today we had a very good debate with the IT providers, NGOs and the representatives of the Member States on combating hatred and hate speech online. You also mentioned it many times here and we agreed on the fact that we need to work together. We need to invest a lot and to use all our collective energy and determination against these phenomena, and we need to work in the direction of having a hate-free Europe. It is highly ambitious, but we have no other way. We have to do it and we have to try.

So thank you very much for all your comments. This debate has convinced me that we have to invest a lot of energy in combating not only anti-Semitism, but also all other kinds of hatred in Europe. It is something we have to do, and we have to do it together.

Matti Maasikas,President-in-Office of the Council. – Mr President, let me once again assure you that the Council is determined to address anti—Semitism in all its forms – xenophobia, racism. Hate speech will be on next week’s agenda of the Ministers of Justice for discussion.

Moreover, we need to ensure effective implementation of existing legislation and protect victims. Much is at stake here: responsibility for the history of our continent and the essential democratic rights that shape our societies today. Crimes motivated by racism and xenophobia affect not only the victim, but also society as a whole.

In the name of the Council, I have followed this debate very closely and paid particular attention to the views expressed. I wish this House all strength and wisdom for tomorrow’s votes.